As much as I try to resist the urge to be a know-it-all (and recognize the fact that I don’t, in fact, even know that much – especially about the very things most worth knowing), occasionally I have to get all Bobby Fletcher (the famous checkersmaster) and drop some science of the sort that's right under your nose. It's 2013 and everyone loves sriracha now, dear but few have their facts straight.

In the last decade or so, masses of semi-adventurous, non-Vietnamese Angelenos discovered Vietnamese cuisine. While many non-Vietnamese Asian-Americans had long known about Vietnamese food (and the rooster sauce that is ubiquitous at Southern California Vietnamese restaurants), Vietnamese food's profile skyrocketed when they it when white folks declared it the new Thai.

It’s an unfortunate reality that not everyone in the Universe can know Jaime Lefcovich. Those of us who do have the pleasure miss her awfully, as she has escaped the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave for the adventure of discovering Thailand, where she can master the art of ayurvedic medicine (which is not Thai in origin, but is what she’s practicing there) while eating all the เนื้อผัดพริก she can fit into her purdy mouth.